Chapter 4

Sam shucked off her pack and dug out a geiger counter and handed a wide roll of tape to Daniel and a wide tipped marker. Daniel looked at the roll he was holding and realized it wasn't tape. His eyes popped at the bright yellow labels with the tri part radiation symbols.

"First I want to check for radiation." Sam said off handedly.

"Are we in danger?" Daniel had no desire to go through that again.

"Probably not." Sam turned the gain up on the meter and started to test each box and crate. There weren't as many as she first feared.

"Probably?"

There was no response to most of the containers and on these Sam requested Daniel to place a large check. But as they made their way through the piles of cartons one large wooden crate set the meter off clicking albeit in a very strange pattern.

"Uh oh." Daniel said as he backed away cautiously only to bump into another crate.

"Daniel, slap a sticker on this box."

When they had finished their initial survey, only one container, the large wood crate, got any reaction from the meter.

"Daniel, there's a tool box by the door. Could you bring it over here? I'm going to need the pry bar."

"Are you going to open it? Are you out of your mind?" Daniel was sweating in the uncomfortable, claustrophobic protective suit.

"And how else will we know what's inside?" Sam responded testily. She was hot and uncomfortable too. You'd think Daniel, the archeologist and Space Monkey, was used to enclosed spaces and dangerous sites by now, Sam thought. Then she realized she was channeling Jack O'Neill.

There was pounding on the locked door further unnerving Daniel.